Long before the country as a whole was turning to "shovel-ready" jobs to stimulate economic recovery, people on the Gulf Coast were looking to construction and related trades to boost employment and rebuild communities after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. But across the country, women had faced discrimination and other barriers to these fields for years. So how would women in Mississippi and Louisiana, especially low-income women and women of color who were in greatest need of living-wage jobs, benefit from a construction boom?
With women representing less than three percent of workers in building trades nationwide, the answer certainly wouldn't be easy. But soon after the storms hit in 2005, the Ms. Foundation for Women began funding long-time grantee Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), a national organization based in Washington, DC with expertise in promoting women's access to building trades, to lay the groundwork for a solution.
From decades of experience, WOW knew that with the right skills and support, women could help rebuild communities -- and their own lives. Indeed, higher wages offered in construction and related trades were in high demand after the hurricanes decimated tourism and other industries that typically employ women, and with single women-led families in Mississippi earning an average yearly income of $16,547.
Connecting National Experience to Grassroots Expertise
Understanding the importance of rooting a solution in community wisdom, WOW set out to link their national experience to grassroots expertise on the Gulf Coast. They found a perfect partner in Moore Community House (MCH), a community-development organization in Biloxi, Mississippi which worked closely with low-income women and women of color and had a deep understanding of the challenges they faced.
WOW suggested that, together, they design a program that would equip women with construction skills and offer critical resources to build and sustain women's economic security over the long haul. MCH was quickly on board; they assessed local interest among women and contractors alike -- in fact, it turned out that demand significantly outpaced the number of available skilled workers throughout the region.
Breaking New Ground
In 2008, after conducting research and an initial pilot phase with critical support from WOW, MCH launched Women in Construction (WINC), the first construction training program for women on the Gulf Coast. In WINC's first year, 50 women graduated with entry-level skills. Women like Sabrina Graley, a mother of two and graduate of WINC's second class, who found a job with a commercial contracting company as a carpenter's helper and helped rebuild an historic church in Bay St. Louis, MS.
Today, WINC has the capacity to train 60-80 women, and a waiting list of 265 women. Despite its small size, it has received recognition from state and national officials. The U.S. Department of Labor now lists WINC as a source for federal contractors looking to hire women and people of color, and after learning of the project upon a visit by WOW and MCH to Washington, DC, a Mississippi Congressperson was so impressed that he began supporting a line item for it.
Connecting Critical Issues in Wonen's Lives
WINC has succeeded not only because it teaches women to operate heavy machinery, but also because it makes connections among the multiple barriers women face in securing and sustaining jobs in "non-traditional" fields. WINC links physical infrastructure to social infrastructure, offering mentoring and other resources, in addition to skills-building, that help women succeed. WOW and MCH knew, for instance, that a lack of public transportation and quality, affordable child care, coupled with pervasive bias against women in the construction industry, would make it extremely difficult for women, especially low-income single mothers to find and keep a job. So they offered financial stipends for transportation and child care and equipped women with job placement assistance and tools to defend themselves against hostility and harassment. They also began working with employers to improve their treatment of women in the workplace and uphold anti-discrimination laws.
Constructing a Livable, Equitable Future
Ultimately, the goal of WINC's founding partners is to change policies and culture so that all women are welcome and respected on construction sites and have fair access to living wages in up-and-coming industries like green jobs -- on the Gulf Coast and nationwide.
"We need to show that there are plenty of women out there who, with appropriate resources directed to job training and outreach, are shovel-ready just like the jobs themselves," says Joan Kuriansky, executive director of WOW. The achievements of WINC and similar programs go a long way towards dispelling the myth that women can't lay pipes or roads alongside men, and can be a model to ensure women's access to new and emerging opportunities in physical infrastructure across the U.S.
Back in Mississippi, as recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita continues, WINC graduates are doing their part to shift cultural expectations in the home, community and workplace to make it easier for the next generation of women builders. When they envision a more livable, equitable future, many have their own children in mind: at just one-year-old, the daughter of WINC student Kaya Blaylock can be seen playing comfortably with a toy hammer and saw in hand.
Image: Sabrina Graley, a graduate of the Women in Construction training program, works on her first job in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Photograph by Elizabeth Rappaport.
Excerpt from Creating Connections, Igniting Change, Ms. Foundation for Women Annual Report, 2007-2008.
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